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Vitality
Vitality or Vitality level is a measure of a character's hardiness. It represents their endurance to pain and injury in the form of hit-points, and measures how much damage a character can withstand before being incapacitated or killed. Vitality level is usually expressed as "Vitality X" where X is a number meaning "equivalent to a D&D character of level X." For example, a Vitality 1 character would have hit-points equivalent to a 1st Level D&D Character per the 5th Edition rule. Vitality 5 is equivalent to a 5th Level D&D Character, and so on. Calculating Hit-Points Hit-Points are calculated from your Vitality Level in the same way a 5th Edition D&D Character of that level is calculated. Your total hit-points are based off of a "hit-dice", which in standard D&D can be anywhere from a d6 to a d12. At 1st level (Vitality 1) your hit-points equal the max value of that dice + your Constitution modifier. So if you have a d6 hit-dice and a Con modifier of +2, you have 8 hit-points (6+2). For every level after 1st, you roll your hit-dice and take the number rolled and add your Constitution modifier, then add this total to your maximum hit-points. So let's say when you reach Vitality 2, you roll a d6 and get a 3, and add your +2 Constitution for a total of 5. Your hit-points therefore increase by 5 to be a total of 13 (8+5). As an optional rule, you may be allowed to re-roll a 1 on your hit-dice when levelling up. This helps health totals be more consistent, and generally stops the bad feelings of a bad hit-dice roll. Beginning with Vitality greater than 1 Many Superheroes, due to their super nature, begin higher than Vitality 1 immediately after receiving their powers. To calculate their HP, just follow the above method as if you had levelled up that many times. Example: You begin with Vitality 5, and have a hit-dice size of a d10. You have Constitution modifier of +2. You have 10+2 (12) Hit-Points from your first level, and then you roll a d10 four additional times, adding +2 to each roll. On average, you would have around 42 hp from this method. Healing with Hit-Dice As well as being used to calculate their hit-points, a character also uses hit-dice to heal during a short rest. You have a number of hit-dice equal to your Vitality level and during a short rest you may spend any number of them to heal. To do so, roll the appropriate sized dice and add your Constitution modifier, regaining hit-points equal to the total. What do Hit-Points mean? Hit-points can be thought of in a few different ways. Generally speaking, being reduced to 0 hit-points means you are dying, and so therefore hit-points represents the state of your body. As you take damage, you suffer wounds, and the closer you get to 0 the more severe those wounds are. At 0, you are unconscious and dying. This isn't always accurate, however, because once healed back to consciousness and getting a chance to rest, you can heal back to full automatically (on a long rest) or by using hit dice (on a short rest.) Does this mean your puncture wounds, fractured bones and severe concussion magically go away with a good night's sleep? Well, no. Hit-points instead represent how close your character is to being incapacitated, which can mean different things depending on the fight. In a bar brawl, being brought to 0 probably means you fall unconscious and - provided the beating stops - wake shortly afterwards feeling bruised and sore but otherwise fine. This is the kind of damage that can be healed away with a good night's rest. You'll still feel the effects the following morning, but you'll be ready to take a few more punches before going down again. Fatal confrontation is more deadly, as opponents are trying to inflict grievous wounds. At 0 in a deadly fight, you likely suffer a serious wound that is likely to lead to death quickly if not attended to. Even if you are healed, this wound might leave a lasting effect on your character that takes time to heal. Damage before hitting 0 in these type of engagements will hurt a lot more than a bar brawl, but still should generally be superficial until the incapacitating blow. This is because your character can still heal back to full in a relatively trivial manner. Optional Rules: Wounds and Injuries Combat can be a strange thing in 5th Edition D&D, as you can have an epic battle with a Dragon that nearly kills everyone, and be fine the following morning. This can be immersion breaking. However if all healing takes longer, then trivial combats can be frustrating, especially for Superhero level characters. Wounding Combat One optional rule is to consider whether a combat is Wounding, meaning any damage sustained is more serious and severe. In Wounding combat, your character suffers wounds that won't heal up over night, and you must rest and heal at a default rate of: 1 hp/per Vitality level/per long rest (normal long rest), or 2 hp/per Vitality level/per day's rest (24 hours in a rested state.) These rates may be augmented by powers that give increased healing capability. Any other combat that is not Wounding is considered Superficial, and damage taken can be healed completely by resting as usual. For a normal person this would be akin to a bar brawl, but for Superheroes even some seemingly deadly combat may only be superficial. Injuries Alternatively, an Injury system can be used. All damage in combat is considered to be superficial unless you suffer an Injury. Injuries occur when you are: * brought to 0 hit-points; * suffer a critical hit; * take damage in any way that the DM feels is appropriate (such as rolling a Natural 1 on an Acrobatics check to land from a dangerous height.) An Injury inflicts a penalty to your character. In their simplest state, a Minor Injury will reduce your maximum hit-points by a set amount, and this amount must be healed back as per the healing rules listed in the Wounding section above. This represents things like deep cuts, mild concussions, etc. More serious injuries, Major Injuries, may take weeks or months to heal (broken bones, severe concussions) and until they do may impose serious restrictions on your character. Disadvantage on certain types of checks, a reduction to a certain Ability Score, or even an inability to do certain things at all (you are unable to use 2-handed weapons with a broken arm, for example.) This allows you to flow more seamlessly between combats that are deadly and not-deadly, while still having the threat of long-term damage being sustained.